Demons We're Made Of
by roulettex
Summary: "Three days later, he would finally speak to her and he would realize his Maya was gone. Instead, a changeling of sorts had taken over a girl that meant the most to him and her friends." The dark, every day struggles have consumed Maya Hunter. What happens when she tries to take her own life? What becomes of everyone else who loves her? [Joshaya. Rucas.] Rating: M.
1. Prologue

**Author's Note:** So I heard this song while I was thinking of ideas for another fic, and this idea came to me. Darker than my other story (Poison and Wine) but I still hope you guys enjoy! Let me know what you think! Character details will be coming in the first chapter.

 **Demon's We're Made Of.**

 _Prologue.  
_

`/`/`/`

 **Maya Hunter's apartment – 10:13 P.M.**

" _911, what's the location of your emergency?"_

"2950 Fifth Avenue, Apartment 13."

" _Okay, sir. What is your emergency?"_

"May- My gi- Jesus!"

" _Sir, I need you to calm down and tell me your emergency."_

"My niece's friend isn't breathing! I found her like this. I don't know how long-"

" _Sir, I'll need you to start CPR. Do you know how? Can you do that for me?"_

Hand tugging on his hair, his eyes unable to see anything through the tears, he stood in front of the blonde's nearly lifeless body. "Ye-yeah, I can."

" _Okay. Does she have a pulse?"_

Josh put the cell phone's speaker on and set it on the linoleum floor next to his knees as he hovered over the female, moving her onto her back. His fingertips rested underneath her jawline, feeling the spot as it pulsating underneath his tough. "Yeah, it's faint."

" _Okay, I'll need you to start respiration until the medical team arrives. Keep talking to me, okay?"_

He barely muttered as he tipped her head back, his fingers pinching her nose as he brought his lips to hers. Drawing in a deep breath, he passed the air into her, watching her chest rise and fall as he did so. He did it once more and waited, keeping his fingers on her carotid, feeling her pulse.

He repeated the cycle again, this time not feeling a pulse at the end.

"Her pulse stopped!"

" _Sir, the medical team is almost there, but I need you to start chest compressions."_

Josh hadn't waited for the dispatcher to tell him what to do; he had already laced his fingers together and placed one hand over the other, driving the heel of his palm into her chest repetitively.

Tears stung his eyes and he rapidly blinked them away, some falling onto the back of his hands. "Maya, come on. Please don't leave me."

Two more breaths and a check of her pulse, nothing.

He had just situated himself to start compressions again when voices caught him off guard. EMTs rushed into the bathroom; one grabbed Josh from the blonde's body and pulled him away while the other dropped his kit next to her and opened it, handing the artificial respirator to a third man. Josh watched them crowd around her, soon losing complete sight of her. The EMT who had grabbed him passed him off to a police officer who had followed them up the steps.

The next few moments were a complete, chaotic blur. Voices yelling, a stretcher came through the hallway and into the small space of a bathroom where Maya had tried to end her life.

The question on his mind:

 _ **Why?**_

He wouldn't get his answer for three days.

For now, he was watching the technicians lift her body onto a stretcher and move out of the apartment. The officer's hands were on his arms, preventing him from moving and disrupting the team as they tried to save her life. When they were a safe distance away, the officer escorted Josh to the ambulance waiting downstairs. Jumping in the back of the ambulance without a word, he turned back to the officer. "I need my cell phone. It's in the bathroom. I need to call-"

"I'll find it and bring it to you," the man said, beginning to close the doors of the ambulance and knocking on it as a signal to get going.

Sirens blared and Josh ignored it as he focused on the girl laying nearly lifeless on the stretcher, the technicians still working to keep her alive.

"We have a pulse, now. It's faint, but it's there."

Dropping his head in his hands, he allowed himself to cry. He already had gotten there, but had tried to keep it together in order to save her. But he hadn't, and he didn't know if they could either.

"Don't leave me, Maya," he whispered.


	2. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** So, this doesn't really give you guys anything about Maya's state, but I need to start the story somewhere. How this is going to go is nearly every chapter from here until… whenever, is going to start with Josh talking to the police officer and telling the story of Maya's downward spiral. The chapters will then each slide into a flashback of that particular moment in time. Some points of time may require more than one chapter. Because I have to be careful with this, updates may come a bit slower than my other story **Poison and Wine.**

Regardless, I hope you guys enjoy this story, even if it may be a bit dark and very AU for Maya's character and her relationship with Josh. Just a few things – they have all graduated college and Josh is starting graduate school. Riley and Lucas are together in a very committed relationship. You'll see the rest. 😊 Enjoy guys!

 **Demons We're Made Of**

 _Chapter 1 – Driving a Nightmare I Can't Escape From._

The rolling table burst through the hospital doors into the hallway that led to the emergency rooms. A female nurse jumped up onto the table, straddling the blonde who was nearly lifeless on the table and began compressions again when her pulse faded one more time.

"What do we have?" A nearby doctor asked, helping push the gurney with the EMTs and toward the first available room. Josh was trailing quickly behind, ignoring the requests to stay back – his eyes solely fixated on where the table was going.

"Female. Twenty-two years old. Found in her apartment unconscious. Boyfriend found her. Overdose. She's in and out."

Josh looked up at the EMT as he just rattled off the facts as if it was just another case. The word 'boyfriend' stung just a bit, but that didn't make him lose pace behind them. He and Maya weren't dating. In fact, she was – whatever she was – with somebody else. Somebody who _let_ her get to this point, who encouraged her darkness and probably even supplied her with the pain killers that she took a few too many of.

Once they reached the emergency room doors that separated them from the hallway to the waiting room, a doctor turned to Josh and stopped him from walking through. "Son, you're going to have to wait in the waiting room."

He watched Maya disappear behind the doors as they swung shut and he focused on the doctor. "Like hell, I am! I need to be in there with her!"

"I understand you're scared, but she needs you to be strong." The doctor saw that Josh wasn't giving up, and he surely didn't look like he trusted him. Sighing, the doctor relaxed a little but kept his position between the young man and the doors. "I'm Doctor Marklein. From what I can see, she's fighting this pretty hard. Most people who come in from an overdose are either caught just in time or are dead on arrival. She's in and out, but that mean she's fighting. Let us do our job and I'll come back when I have news. Does she have any immediate family in the area?"

Josh tugged at his hair, trying to clear his mind of what was happening in order to answer him. "Yeah, her parents live just a little up north."

"Can you call them or should I have an officer do it?"

"No," he answered firmly, finally looking at the man before him. "I'll do it."

The doctor nodded and turned away, pushing the doors open and rushing to the room where they took Maya.

Somehow, Josh managed to tear himself away from the doors and move down the small hallway to the waiting room. Finding a seat away from the few others waiting on their loved ones, he sat down and put his head in his hands.

How had it come to this? Just a few months ago Maya seemed fine. Well, maybe not _perfectly_ fine, but not… suicidal. She had been upset frequently, a little angrier than normal, but it wasn't until she started spending time with Micah did she grow worse.

Micah was some guy she met at an underground concert. For whatever reason that Josh couldn't understand, the two hit it off and soon 'someday' was just a vacant memory to Maya. Micah introduced her to a world of parties, risk-taking, and the painkillers.

His hands began to clench and pull at his brown locks just as he was interrupted by the same male voice from her apartment. Looking upward, he saw the officer who had gone to retrieve Josh's phone. "Call someone. Then I think we need to clear a few things up."

Reluctantly taking the phone with shaky hands, Josh unlocked his phone and went straight to his favorite contacts and scrolled through the order – Maya, Cory, Mom, Dad, Riley. Hitting Riley's name, he put the phone by his ear as it rang. A female voice answered quickly. "Riley-" he paused quickly, biting his bottom lip as the lump in his throat grew bigger. "It's Maya, Riley. She's in the hospital." He paused again as the voice grew worried and began speaking fast. "Look, I can't go into detail right now. Can you just get here? I need you to call Shawn and Katy." Pause. "Because I have to talk to a police officer right now." He waited until she agreed and he hung up, shoving the phone in his jacket pocket.

Sitting down in a chair across from him, the officer took out a small notebook and retrieved a pen from his pocket. "I'm Officer Derrickson. Can you give me your full name, birth date, and age, please?"

Clasping his hands together, his elbows resting on his knees, he looked up at the officer. "What does that have to do with anything? You should be concerned about her and who helped her get to this point."

"That's exactly what I'm doing, but I have to talk to you first. You found her, correct?" Josh nodded. "So, help me so I can help her."

"Okay. I'm Joshua Gabriel Matthews. Birthdate is February 14th. I'm twenty-five."

"What do you do, Josh? School? A job?"

"I just started my graduate studies for psychology."

"Good for you. Her name?"

"Maya Hunter. Uh, sorry, her former last name was Hart."

"Married?"

Josh narrowed his eyes slightly at the officer, but let his face relax shortly after when he realized the cop was just doing his job. "No. Her step-father adopted her and she took his last name."

"What does she do?"

"She just graduated from NYU – art history with a minor in business."

"You seem to know a lot about her – how long have you known her?"

Josh leaned back, trying to think. "I couldn't even tell you. She's my niece's best friend and has been for years. Just… a long time. I'm sorry, I can't calculate this right now."

Officer Derrickson looked at him sympathetically and nodded. "I understand. It's a hard situation to deal with, but I appreciate you talking with me. We can take a break whenever you need to, but I need to know about Maya today, Josh. You found her. Can you tell me about that?"

"What do you want to know? I found her in her bathroom and called 911."

"I need to know when you found her, how you found her. Every detail you can think of right now."

Josh swallowed hard and shook his head unbelievingly. "I got to her apartment a little after 10:00 PM. I tried calling her on my way over but she wasn't answering. I tried knocking, but she didn't answer. I let myself in-"

"How did you get in?"

"Maya gave me a key a while back. I used it to get in because it's not like her to not answer when I know she's home."

"How did you know she was home?"

"I heard loud music playing. It worried me – it seemed out of place for her. So, I let myself in and looked around for her. Then I noticed the bathroom door was shut and locked. I knocked and knocked, she didn't respond. I broke through the door and found her on the floor. Unconscious."

"When you found her unconscious, was anything around her?"

"Yeah, a bottle of pills."

"Is she taking any prescriptions?"

"I couldn't tell you."

"You two are close, though. Why wouldn't you know?"

Josh readjusted himself in the waiting room seat. "We are, but we've drifted a little." Looking at the cop, he saw the curious look on his face and he figured he save him another interruption.

It was better to just start at the beginning. It wasn't a story that could keep getting interrupted and jumbled. Things would get lost in the translation and the blonde deserved better than that.

"Let me start from the beginning, when Maya stopped being Maya."


End file.
